Last week at a public hearing over the proposed Columbia River Crossing freeway expansion, Oregon League of Conservation Voters executive director Doug Moore sat down in the capitol building in Salem to testify against the bloated mega-project. After refusing to oppose the CRC during the 2013 legislative session, and after refusing to even sign on to a letter of opposition last fall for a renewed ‘Oregon-only’ push by state Democrats, OLCV was finally ready to come out swinging against the costly, ecologically disastrous boondoggle.

Moore thanked the hearing committee, mentioned how his group “holds legislative leaders accountable”, then spoke about how OLCV views CRC-supporting Dems as allies. He barely got out the words ‘opposed to this project‘ before concluding his testimony. In total, Doug Moore spoke for about 35 seconds.

As the state chapter of the national League of Conservation Voters, OLCV is among the most powerful and influential environmental groups in Oregon. Their endorsements and legislative scorecard rankings are coveted by politicians, and often set the overall tone for smaller enviro-groups. In a state that prides ecology, voters pay attention to what OLCV has to say. As an organization that brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual donations, OLCV is as well funded as they are politically well-connected.

Hi, folks. The defunct Columbia River Crossing freeway mega-expansion appears to be back. Mismanaging Perception will be live-blogging a committee hearing in Salem today, January 14th, 2014 beginning shortly before 1PM. For previous CRC related articles from MMP, click HERE. MMP’s CRC liveblog from last year can be reviewed HERE.

For those unfamiliar, or for those who believed this train-wreck had finally ended, it’s worth reviewing a few more of the facts. The CRC can not honestly be called a ‘bridge’. It is a 10-12 lane, 5 mile long freeway expansion and light rail extension over the Columbia River from Portland to Vancouver, WA. While doing nothing to reduce vehicle trips times or congestion, the CRC’s design and tolling appears entirely dependent on actually encouraging more trips to be taken by automobile, in total disregard for the climate crisis we now face.

Okay, I’m gonna try to keep this one short. After dancing on the grave of the CRC this summer, I’ve largely refrained from dragging myself through the nauseating task of tapping fingers to keyboard yet again over this $4 to $10 billion dollar mistake that just keeps on mistaking. Here we go.

To be clear, this is still a Dead Freeway. Oregon governor Kitzhaber declared such this summer, and despite his and other state Democrat’s best delusional efforts, the freeway mega-expansion has not been reanimated. The bonds approved in HB 2800 expired on September 30th, as mandated by several trigger requirements that were never met. There have, however, been some recent revelations worth noting. I’ll attempt to be brief.

Clackamas Country commissioners are demanding to see traffic diversion data generated by CRC contractor CDM Smith that, according to economist Joe Cortright, proves that new tolls on the CRC will divert so much traffic from the I-5 to the 205 that (A) the CRC will never pay for itself, and (B) so much more traffic will enter Clackamas and East Portland that citizens there will cough up a polluted lung while driving around searching for a space to park in their own hometown.

The Columbia River Crossing freeway mega-expansion has been slayed, there should be little doubt about this fact. Recent media hype over a potential re-animation of the nightmare project is just that: hype. It’s been speculated the moment that governor John Kitzhaber declared dead the $4-10 billion dollar freeway & light rail mega-project, Oregon AFL-CIO president Tom Chamberlain was calling up the gov, screaming expletive laden protest against such a quick surrender. Oregon might look like a progressive Democrat stronghold, but the reality is elected Dems in our state often slide into home with only 2-3% voter margins. Oregon Dems rarely have a shot at winning without a strong Labor ground game and DNC state PAC funding.

According to sources familiar with inter-legislative chatter, this last-second Hail Mary for the CRC is nothing more than posturing, simply an obligatory effort to please trade unions that lust after the biggest, costliest projects – not the kinds of cheaper, jobs-rich projects like the Common Sense Alternative to the CRC or the new CSA 2.0 plan currently being vetted.

For now, there is little worry a new CRC plan funded solely by Oregon tax payers could ever fly. According to sources, no Republicans in the Oregon legislature support such a plan should a special session be called in September. There is also internal information indicating elected Democrats fear a voter revolt should they choose to go back on their promises that funding triggers in HB2800 (Oregon’s CRC bonding bill), were in fact binding.

In the last several months since Oregon governor John Kitzhaber declared that “now is the time” to build the 12 lane, 5 mile long Columbia River Crossing freeway mega-expansion, most of the myths proponents have been pushing have been debunked by the press. Even more, accusations of ethics violations and the corrupt politics that have fast-tracked the CRC are coming to light every other day. Despite the Oregon state house and senate both voting to approve bonds for the freeway expansion, no actual funding source has been located, despite 14 years of planning the project.

Much has been made of this fact, along with several others: The CRC will increase toxic pollutants and carbon emissions in the air by 35%. It will not ease congestion, it will increase it, as more lanes incentivize more traffic that will then bottleneck at the Rose Quarter. It will greatly limit commercial ship traffic on the Columbia river, as the bridge portion of the expansion is 70 feet shorter than the current lift span. The 17 lane, 400 foot wide interchange on Hayden Island will demolish over 900 permanent jobs. It’s bloated $4 billion price tag has been predicted to overrun to an alarming $10 billion as the CRC robs desperately needed funds from other job-providing projects for decades to come.

While all these facts were present during the public testimony against the CRC in Salem in February, very little mention was made of the impact the freeway expansion itself will impose upon the surrounding physical environment.

“In 1980, whale watching surpassed whaling as an industry. Now it’s worth about four times as much. Whale watching provides far, far more jobs to people than whaling ever did.”
~ Paul Watson

The argument goes something like this: ‘We recognize that the planet is dying, but jobs’. All of Australia is aflame due to climate change, but we must provide jobs. There’s so much smog in China that you can conceal a factory on fire inside of it, but the economy comes first, so we need job growth. The Columbia River Crossing will increase carbon emissions, additional lanes incentivize additional traffic, but cars make jobs happen. Coal exports through our region will poison the air and increase respiratory illness, but yeah, sorry…jobs.

Ad nauseam we’re told that ecological devastation is unfortunate, yet unavoidable. The situation can’t be helped because somebody somewhere needs a job, and by God, no tree-hugging, job-killing regulations are gonna stand in the way!

But isn’t this Oregon? – a state widely considered to be the most sustainable and progressive in the nation, teaming with trees and hippies and salmon? Not anymore, there’s a new sheriff in town. Oregon’s reputation as a Green stronghold is being seriously threatened by some otherwise fairly blue Democrats pulling the jobs card to endorse every bad policy that comes their way. Their argument is not only absurdly childish, but dangerously ignorant, and it’s time for it to end, for all our sake.